Embodiments of the invention relates to data processing.
In many data processing projects and applications, a large number of objects are used. Objects are for example instances of classes or are complex data structures containing data elements, other data structures, and member methods. As time progresses and programmers change, many of these data objects become inactive. These data objects may become inactive because they are no longer needed, or because they are replaced by more current objects or by objects that, for one reason or another, are better for an application. These data objects that are no longer being used or become unnecessary may adversely affect or interfere with the operation of a computer or data processing system. For example, inactive objects may prevent optimal use of a memory, and may affect maintenance of the computer or data processing system. In some long running applications, these files containing objects may accumulate large numbers of custom, inactive objects. These objects increase the sizes of the files, referred to as making the files fat. The inactive objects also may affect maintenance and may prevent memory optimization.